'It was hideous but it worked'

'It was hideous but it worked'

Hollywood director Roland Emmerich has decorated his London home with political imagery - from murals of Mao and Lenin to a model of Abu Ghraib.

"Nothing is spared, from government and gender to race and religion - but there's no manifesto", says British interior designer John Teall. "The idea was to provoke thought, amuse and maybe shock a little."

Friday 24 October 2008 19.05 EDT

The living room is overlooked by a taxidermy zebra. Roland Emmerich instructed interior designer John Teall to ensure the interior was "as non-frumpy as possible"

A diorama of John F Kennedy's assassination in one of several glass-topped tables containing 3D models of politically significant places, including Abu Ghraib prison, Tiananmen Square, and the LA neighbourhood where Hugh Grant had his infamous encounter with a prostitute

The "blackboard room" features a military dentist's chair and a desk made from a fighter plane wing. The room is so-called because of its floor-to-ceiling chalkboards featuring architectural drawings and mathematical equations inspired by a scene in the film A Beautiful Mind

The American bedroom features a bed throw made from vintage army underwear, a headboard made from an aeroplane wing, and a Photoshopped photograph of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sporting a dressing gown and a hairy six-pack

Only the library, with its listed wood panelling and lime green, silk upholstered walls, feels like a room your mother might feel comfortable in. But look closely, and there's a phallus on the mantlepiece